English Muffin Bread

November is here and warm soup and bread is on the menu. I thought I’d share my favorite fast bread recipe. I found this recipe on Pinterest a few years ago and never looked back! It uses 5 ingredients and mixes up in minutes. No kneading. No fuss. Just a simple process that makes the most delicious toast ever!

Start by using quick rise yeast. I tried using regular yeast and giving it two rises. It took so long and was so messy that I will never do it again! Even though I always have regular yeast on hand, I won’t be going that route. Recently, I found inexpensive quick rise yeast at Aldi (not pictured here) and have been keeping a 3 pack of that on hand in my fridge for this recipe.

Add sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast to the bowl. Pour in the warm water. I always test the temperature of my water on my inner wrist. It should feel like nothing. Not hot, not cold. That way, you know it’s right around 98.6 degrees and perfect for rising yeast without killing it from being too hot.

Mix until it looks shaggy like this. Divide it into 3-4 greased bread pans. Mine are the Pampered Chef really big ones, so I use 3.

Let it rise for about 40 min-1hour. I let mine get about this big and then pop them in the oven for 35 minutes.

At the 35 minute mark, open the oven and cover the top of the bread with butter. You can brush on melted butter or just do what I do, use a cool stick of butter and rub it all over the top. Continue cooking for 10 more minutes.

Cool the bread almost completely. This bread is not as good fresh from the oven. It really needs to sit a bit.

And you’re done! I love this bread as toast. These pictures were from last November when I took the english muffin bread up to my hubby’s grandparent’s home in Michigan. While the men hunted, we women talked too much and ate too much…pretty much the perfect weekend! I stole pictures of the bread on a handmade table runner that Grandma Ware made. Precious memories.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Brush with butter. Bake another 10 minutes. If you're doing 4 loaves, you may need to cut down the baking time a little bit. I usually do 3 large loaves and this time works perfectly for the larger loaves.